Since it is summertime, I thought a great recipe to start off with would be one where you can bust out that grill that you’ve waited all winter to use. For our 2 year anniversary, Joe and I bought ourselves a grill gazebo to cover our grill, so rain or shine you’ll see me out there grilling my heart out. You can definitely make this recipe indoors as well, but there is nothing better than getting that smoky taste from the grill.

Today’s recipe is Dry Rub Chicken with Grilled Vegetables. You could grill pretty much any vegetable on your grill; however, this is just a suggestion of a combination of vegetables that I think go really well with one another.

The vegetables used in this recipe are fresh green beans, onion, mushrooms, and garlic. You’ll soon find out that pretty much every recipe that we cook includes garlic. I never really used garlic too much until I met Joe. Now I’m obsessed. Once you chop all your vegetables, place them in an aluminum foil pan, drizzle with 2 ½ tablespoons of olive oil and mix thoroughly to cover all the ingredients.

Typically when I make vegetables I will add various spices like salt, pepper, etc however with this meal you don’t really need it since there is so much spice on the chicken. Cover your pan with aluminum foil and place your vegetables on the grill.

The cooking time of your vegetables will depend on a few things: 1) how hot your grill is and 2) how big your pan is. My grill was about 350 degrees F and the pan was about 9x13 inches. I grilled them covered with aluminum foil for about 30 minutes and then another 10 minutes uncovered. If your grill is hitting closer to 400 degrees F you could probably grill for 20 minutes covered and 5 minutes uncovered.

While your vegetables are on the grill, you can create your rub for the chicken. This is the first time I’ve tried this combination of spices for a dry rub for chicken and I have to say, I think I’ve fallen in love. As of late, I’ve been obsessed with thyme. It’s a spice that I had not heard about too much but recently every recipe I’ve seen includes thyme. It has a really wonderful flavor without being too overpowering like some other spices.

I know what you’re thinking; it would be a lot easier to just buy a premade spice from the supermarket. However, the doing a homemade rub is so simple to make and includes only 6 ingredients (2 of which are salt and pepper and let’s be honest; everyone has salt and pepper at home).

Most importantly, premade spices for meats typically have a lot of sodium and preservatives in them. In just a few minutes you could make your own spice that’s much healthier! You could also double or triple the recipe so that you have the dry rub on hand and don’t have to make it for individual meals. Just make sure you keep it covered in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

Before you rub the chicken with the dry rub, drizzle the chicken with your remaining ½ tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. This will prevent the chicken from sticking to the grill. After, rub both sides of the chicken with your dry rub.

The chicken will take approximately 12 minutes to make (6 minutes on each side). Make sure that once you put the chicken on the grill, you close the grill and don’t touch the chicken until the 6 minutes are up. That way you can get those beautiful grill lines on your chicken! Is your mouth watering yet?

Ta da! Your meal is complete and now you can sit down and enjoy without thinking about cleaning up so many dishes J

I hope you enjoyed the first of many recipes to come. Before a meal, Italians will toast their glasses and say “Salute!” which means “To health!” Being that we are here to make healthy recipes, I can’t imagine a better way to send you off. Now go crank up the grill! From the Sans’ kitchen to yours, salute!